I added Venezia to my Italy trip at the last minute. A friend of mine in New York has spent a good amount of time in La Serenissima and recommended a fabulous hotel: the Novecento in the San Marco section of Venice. Nine rooms in a fairly new hotel along a tiny street they call a calle. Charming little rooms. Sweet. Clean, clean, clean. And without that musty smell that hotels in Europe sometimes have. The bed was a dream to sleep on. Precious little giardino for breakfast. The calle so isolated that it was absolutely silent at bedtime.

The sun was out the entire time. People kept telling me it had been raining like mad, but suddenly changed. Arrivo, poi il sole arriva! I arrive, then the sun arrives. It was stunning weather: cool and breezy. Life looks better under the springtime sun.

I took a trip to one of the islands in the Venetian lagoon. On my first trip to Venice in 2001, I visited Burano, the island where they make lace. This time, I considered going to Murano, the glass-blowing island, but decided instead to go to Cimetero. It is where the Venetians -- or anyone who wishes to spend eternity in Venice, like Ezra Pound and Stravinsky -- are buried. The cemetery was divided into thematic sections. There was a plot for babies -- Campo dei Bambini. One for sailors. There was even a field where only nuns were buried.

During this visit to Venice, I had one of the best meals I've ever eaten in Italy: at a restaurant called the Antiche Carampane. It was definitely not a restaurant for tourists -- with signs on the front that threatened to charge 5000 lira if you should dare to stop and ask them for directions, or information. Obviously, that sign has been there for awhile, considering the euro arrived in Italy years ago. Another sign bragged no menu turistico. Many restaurants in Italy bring English language menus to your table if they discern you don't speak the language. At this restaurant, that was slightly oxymoronic anyway, given the fact they had no menus at all, except for the wine list.

It was not an easy place to find -- secreted away in the San Polo region of Venice. Three vaparetto stops from my hotel, I headed out early just to make sure I arrived in time for my reservation, my prenotazione. In Italy, by the way, you do not make reservations, you take them. Anyway, I arrived early, after several false starts down calle that ended at little canals.

After I made it clear that I am allergic to shrimp, the waiter recommended a dish of pesce crudo - raw fish (think Italian sushi), followed by some white fish I think was turbot, cooked simply with artichokes. I ended the meal with panna cotta, two small servings: one with chocolate sauce, the other with some kind of fruit sauce. I drank my coffee and headed out to continue my nighttime adventure in Venice.

I wandered for some time, thinking I might stop in the Piazza San Marco for a prosecco, when I heard this beautiful music. Inside a church in the San Marco quarter, a group of Italian musicians were playing Vivaldi on classic instruments. As I did on my first trip to Venice, I topped my evening with that. Afterwards, I took a slow vaparetto ride to my hotel, then drifted into one of the sweetest sleeps I've ever had.

When people ask me “what was the highlight of this trip to Italy”, I tell them -- it had to be Venezia.